Fifth-graders' field trip is a day on the job

Escondido students take part in BizTown financial literacy program

SAN DIEGO — The 90 or so fifth-graders from Escondido’s Bernardo Elementary scrambled around on their field trip Monday paying bills, selling goods, producing news, and delivering services. In their 4½ hours of running a city, they learned that working hard at a job is, well, hard work.

“Nicole told me that now she understands why I come home from work grumpy!” Elizabeth Birch said, amused by her daughter’s response to the day.

Welcome to JA BizTown, a 10,000-square-foot mini-city at Junior Achievement of San Diego, just east of Mission Valley. Nearly two dozen organizations — such as U-T San Diego, San Diego Gas & Electric Co., Sun Diego, Best Buy, SeaWorld and San Diego Foundation — have storefronts in BizTown, where thousands of fifth-graders from throughout the county “work” each year as they learn about running a business.

This was no ordinary field trip. The Bernardo students did have fun, and they didn’t go home grumpy. But they were tired and overwhelmed, and more than a little surprised by how much work BizTown turned out to be.

Ivan Resendiz, 10, was CEO and CFO at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, and between issuing paychecks, paying bills and making bank deposits, he didn’t have a lot of time to interact with his employees or relax on his break. (Sound familiar, grown-ups?) Cole Hanna, working at BizTown’s newspaper, struggled to come up with a story idea to meet deadline. (Yes, I was sympathetic.)

And US Bank CEO Hayden McDonald’s branch was missing employees, so he ended up working as a teller, too. Parent volunteer Patti McDonald, Hayden’s mom, told the students assigned to US Bank that they would have to wear two hats that day. (One girl’s response: “We get to wear hats?”) Zach Leso patrolled BizTown as the police officer, reporting to Mayor Panagiotis Drosos at City Hall. When Officer Zach told his boss he was giving warnings for such violations as running, rather than tickets, his boss told him to write more tickets.

Talk about real-world experience: Students found that, like many businesses today, theirs were short-staffed. The workers didn’t always have time to take a full break. And they had to make sure their checking account had “sufficient funds” — they learned that phrase — to make their BizTown purchases. Checks do bounce in BizTown.

Junior Achievement, founded nationally more than 90 years ago, provides financial literacy programs for students in kindergarten through high school. BizTown is one of its signature programs, designed to educate fifth-graders about a free-market economy and the community it takes to run it.

A trip to BizTown follows about four weeks of in-class financial literacy lessons from fifth-grade teachers using the Junior Achievement curriculum. This was Bernardo’s fourth year in the BizTown program. Bernardo’s fifth-grade teachers choose the field trips for their classes, and BizTown has become a must-do event, especially thanks to financial support from the Escondido Union School District and the school’s PTA, teacher Chris Erdos said.

The students learn about what it takes to run a business and manage money. Bank loans, checking and savings accounts, taxes, and interest are discussed.